BIANCA SFORZA 
Bossi, near the Castello, and had been decorated by 
the foremost artists of the day. Michelozzi is said 
to have designed the noble portal adorned with 
marble reliefs of Duke Francesco and his wife, 
Bianca, now in the Castello Museum, and the 
Brescian painter, Vincenzo Foppa, was certainly em¬ 
ployed to paint the interior. The Etruscan architect, 
Filarette, writing in 1464, devotes several pages of 
his Trattato to a description of its splendid loggias, 
marble halls, and richly carved and painted ceilings, 
and ends by declaring that it is the “ most beautiful 
thing in Milan.” 1 At that time Foppa was painting 
the palace-walls with frescoes from Roman history, 
including the favourite story of Trajan and the 
Widow, and portraits of the ducal family. But the 
work was interrupted by the death of Cosimo, and 
twenty years later his grandson, Lorenzo, was com¬ 
pelled by financial difficulties to sell the bank for 
4000 ducats to Luigi da Tersago, Captain of the 
Milanese Horse. The new owner, being a wealthy 
man, spent large sums on the improvements of the 
house, adding a stately loggia and laying out vast 
gardens with terraces, fountains, and groves of palm 
and cypress. Foppa, who had lately returned to 
Milan, was summoned to resume his task, and 
painted a new series of frescoes along the parapet of 
1 A History of Milan tinder the Sforza, by C. M. Ady, 268. 
175 
